


bows and magnolias

by moonjoy



Category: Mamamoo
Genre: Action & Romance, F/F, Hurt/Comfort, a lot of action that idk how to write, archer moonbyul, crime/vigilante au, femme fatale yongsun, hacker wheein, i watched a ton of carmen sandiego and wrote the plot, mechanic hyejin, moonbyul has techno arrows so thats fun, so judge this accordingly
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-01
Updated: 2021-02-14
Packaged: 2021-03-12 14:20:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,579
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29136957
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/moonjoy/pseuds/moonjoy
Summary: "Admittedly there were many complications in her work, but it was simple in Byulyi's mind"ditching her family that got in a little too deep with a drug cartel, Byulyi soon learned she wasn't above the life of crime like she wanted to believe. struggling to survive with archery as her only solid talent, she made herself the most bizarre (and illegal) job she could ever have.a private archer.
Relationships: Jung Wheein/Moon Byulyi | Moonbyul
Comments: 1
Kudos: 20





	1. maybe not so simple

**Author's Note:**

> Just vibe with this one, because I sure did. No brain cells were used while writing any of the chapters.

When a person smoked cigarettes for a certain amount of time, the way they held anything would mimic the way they smoked; the pen, the straw, the whatever– placed between their middle and index finger in a certain angle, the tip facing their mouth.

That was how Byulyi held an arrow. Gentle, as if it wasn't a weapon but a mere branch. As if she wasn't going to lock it into her bow and fire it away. 

The new set of arrows in her hands felt heavier compared to other batches she got from Hyejin, her supplier, but there was no doubt she'd continue this obscure habit of hers. Not like she ever smoked, though a lot of people around her did, but there was something endearing about this way of holding; telling this object that you simply can't leave it behind even if your life depended on it. 

"Do you not like them?" Hyejin said, cutting off whatever fantasy Byulyi dreamed of at the moment. It was enough to bring her hazy mind back into the empty garage. "Is it the hot pink?" she asked, referring to the hot pink rim around the arrows to indicate their function: electrical shocks. 

"What? No, I like them." She tucked the arrows into her bag, designed to look sporty more than it was deadly. "A bit heavy, but I'm guessing that's what happens if they have little tasers in them."

Hyejin's body language already got ready for a rebuttal when Byulyi squeezed in the last sentence. So when she talked soft, it came off as passive aggressive instead. "I tried my best," she said, noticing the slight worry in Byulyi's eyes. No archer liked close combat even against an ex-mechanic.

Byulyi nodded, knowing she had no expertise to judge such things. Besides, Hyejin was the only one making such arrows at request. Go to any other sane person and they would rat her out to the police in an instant. 

Amazing how Hyejin hadn't lost her mind with how many shady underground clients she had.

"Thanks again, Hyejin," she said, taking her bag to her shoulder to head out. 

"No problem." By the time Byulyi reached the door, Hyejin had another phone call going on– the woman was too busy for her own good. She swung the metal door and squeezed herself out. When the door was three meters and she was barely half of it, this task was more daunting than you'd think.

One would even say it's harder than running a solo freelance business that is most certainly illegal. 

Admittedly there were many complications in her work, but it was simple in her mind. Growing up in this pristine and rich family, Byulyi had picked up archery at early childhood. So when their family business went south, it was only basic math for her to ditch her inheritance and go underground as an archer. People liked unique talents in this line of work.

_ Maybe not so simple,  _ she thought. Especially when she didn't have a client for a week straight. She picked her focus up to the road so she could navigate herself to her apartment. There was a large group of people up ahead and she didn't want to stick out more than she already did with her gigantic bag that was taller than herself. 

Lucky for her, she only bumped into someone once. It was a boy, dressed in loose black clothing with a cap and a mask (this was standard uniform for those who were a tad bit shady to be seen in public), but any other depressed teen had similar clothing so she decided to drop it. What was she going to do about it anyways? The boy was lost amongst the people.

She picked up her pace and kicked her apartment door without intending, her paranoia still present in her brain. The feeling of being followed was like a dark succubus that sat on her shoulders, but no matter how much she looked, there was no sign of a follower. Only when she locked the flat's door did she feel a little bit better.

Orange scent from her air purifier calmed her nerves, the empty living room with a single couch on it invited her to sit and relax. This was the smallest apartment she had ever lived in -though it didn't take much for her to consider an apartment small- and yet it felt home enough. It had a larger window overlooking the city, and a smaller one facing the east to let in early sunlight, complementing the cozy vibes she craved for in a living place. If her daily life was all action, her home life had to balance that out. 

Her arrow bag settled down onto the couch before she did, but didn't they always come first to her anyways? She cradled the bag in her arms and unzipped it so she could take a further look. If her upstairs neighbor is nice enough this time she could test her arrows out without a 1 a.m. noise complaint. To their defense Hyejin did give her a noisy batch that time, and Byulyi had no way of knowing until she took it for a test run.

_ I hope electric arrows don't make noise,  _ she hoped as she reached for her bow and an arrow, but instead they got stuck into something in the bottom. That wasn't normal, Byulyi didn't even put her gum wrapper in there. Just her bow and arrows. She reached for the item, and when she felt a small cold metal, reality struck. It was planted.

She pulled it out to see an earpiece, which had crossed her mind. The device was buzzing, which meant someone must have been actively listening from the other side. She could crush it, make sure no one pryed to her home life…or she could try listening to them back.

Before she could stop herself with rational thinking, she plugged it on her ear and listened. Clicks, keyboard clicks with an inhumane pace. Whoever they were, Byulyi wasn't their main concern enough to stop working on anything else.

"Can you hear me?"

The clicks stopped before she finished her sentence. Quiet settled in from both sides, but a huff ended the tranquility. "Good afternoon Ms. Moon," said a feminine voice, so systematic that Byulyi feared this was an automated message. "Pleasure to meet you at last."

"At last–?" Her gut twisted at the formal words, this wasn't how she got hired by people. "If you wanted my services, there were better ways to contact me."

"I know, but they were boring." The restrained service voice of the woman broke to reveal a much more flirty tone. "You like dramatic entrances as much as I do, Moon, so don't tell me I'm ridiculous. You'll sound like a hypocrite."

Clicks, typing and a soda can opening. The woman was giving Byulyi a pause on purpose. If this woman thought that would make her relax, she was deeply wrong. Anxiety built off in her system after a certain time and kept her alive more than a few times. 

Though, anxiety also made her overthink. "You watched me, and researched me, I assume you have contacts–" 

"Woah there Sherlock, I didn't say I was going to keep secrets. Be patient," she said. While responding with a  _ fuck you Watson  _ enticed her, Byuyli kept her last bits of professionalism.

"Look at you being funny." The earpiece stayed in her ear even after she had a bow and an arrow in hand. If this woman could multitask so could she, she thought, and locked the arrow in for a test shot. "Mind telling me who you are?"

The woman hummed. "Jung Wheein. I do computer stuff."

The name was far too familiar for Byulyi's liking. People that hung out on Hyejin's garage tossed this name around multiple times accompanied their vile descriptions with the words  _ hacker  _ and a nickname. 

"You're magnolia?" she asked, vivid pieces of memories she eavesdropped coming together to tell a rather eerie story. Computers wiped clean overnight, man twice Byulyi's size blackmailed into moving out of the country, and people you'd never thought they'd get caught having police wait by their door. Men liked blaming women for misfortunes, sure, but Byulyi wondered if they were miraculously right for once.

"Oh, I'm flattered Ms Moon–"

The arrow slipped from her hands yet found the hole's center. The wall buzzed and so did her mind. 

"–so now that we both know each other, I want your help, in a way."

Byulyi lowered her bow, taking stranded steps to retrieve her arrow. Wheein wanted  _ her  _ help. She had no means to interrupt who was the most interesting client she ever had.

"Us computer nerds stumble upon things sometimes, like dark web stuff, and I didn't enjoy what I saw. Unlike a nasty porn pop-up, I can't just delete that out of existence, and that really bothers me."

"Little flower didn't like seeing mafia stuff, is what you're saying." She snatched the arrow off the wall, grinning. "So? You're going to play the police?"

"Oh, no," Wheein said, unbothered despite how belittling  _ little flower _ sounded. "We are going to play the police."

Byulyi almost removed the earpiece until Wheein added.

"Because I am hiring you, Byulyi."


	2. midnight cashier on thin ice

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is kinda like a two parter on a prologue, but really it's not

Not ending the conversation right then and there was only out of Byulyi's pure amusement. Begging more questions to be answered was out of her respect for the magnolia name. "Are you okay, magnolia? Seriously asking."

Wheein's voice turned toneless, yet growing impatient. "You didn't have work rolling for a week straight, and I bet you are willing to eat your orange scented air purifier at this point. Now here I am, offering you a good chunk of money. Are you going to refuse?"

_ Good chunk of money _ was the turn of phrase her mind was stuck on. Lord knew she needed it to the point she almost missed how creepy Wheein actually sounded. "How do you know this stuff?" she let out. 

"Started following you through CCTVs, also I advise you to look to the corner on the left–" Byulyi raised her head to see a small red dot. "–Hi! That's me."

Byulyi dropped her bow, when her actual intention was to grab it tighter and shoot the camera down. "What the fuck."

"I know, scary. Maybe you shouldn't have called me little flower," she said, pleasure sinking into her voice like honey. "Look, I have money, I have fun little quests. I have a couple groups of people I want out of business and you with your cute arrows may be the solution. Plus, I may have taken your website down so no one else can contact your number, so you really don't have a choice in this."

There was no response, but Wheein could see Byulyi's excited eyes anyways. Was it because she wasn't going to starve to death, or was it because Wheein handed her an opportunity no one else will ever get in their lives? 

"Just, one question. How many cameras?"

Wheein didn't like the number that came out of her mouth. "Four."

"You are obsessed," Byulyi muttered, kneeling down to retrieve her bow as Wheein made a snorting noise. "I'll be shooting them down. Have a good evening Jung."

"So, you are okay with this?" Wheein asked, "After that many cameras?"

Byulyi raised her bow, and locked another pink arrow in. Instead of answering, she shot down the second camera she spotted- the one above her fridge. "Three. Don't worry, I'll keep the one in the living room."

"Good girl."

The earpiece beeped to signal the end of the call.

Now she had to shoot the other two down, both because it was disturbing, and because she had to impress Wheein now. Maybe these were little targets to test Byulyi. They had to go regardless.

_ I am hiring you, Byulyi. _ When she complained about the lack of business, she didn't expect  _ magnolia _ of all people to be the cause of it, nor did she expect the most non-illegal illegal job in her hands. Doing good the bad way, she was about to put it, but then the line between those two became too bleak and she abandoned that thought. Good or bad, she had no choice, and the job didn't rub her in the wrong way either.

An absurd thought to have when she shot down the camera hidden in her bathroom cabinet. Did her desperation lower her standards that much? Once she mocked those enticed by money and here she was; a-okay with being spied on. 

The last camera was up on a tight space between her bookshelf and the wall. This was a target if she had ever seen one, the angle was just narrow enough to fit an arrow, and Byulyi knew it wasn't that way before. No matter, the camera buzzed and the red light faded away.

A single afternoon shouldn't have been packed this much. Though conditions were never ideal in her line of work, this was a new way of unideal. 

And so she dealt with this like any other problem: With her bag as a hugging pillow and ten hours of sleep. 

×

"Rise and shine, Moon~"

The earpiece, Byulyi realized, was also a speaker monstrosity. Which meant Wheein could yell at three a.m. if she'd like and Byulyi couldn't stop her.

Fortunate enough, Wheein didn't use this feature against her just yet. Just a melodic  _ rise and shine.  _ But Byulyi had risen and shone for a while, and she must have known that. "I left the living room camera on for a reason," she said, choking up because these were the first words she uttered for the day. Which made her sound like she _ did _ just wake up. "We are starting work on the weekend?"

"I have seen you run around on sundays, so this shouldn't be a problem." Wheein's voice was unchanging, static. Did she ever sleep, and if so how did she talk this clean at seven a.m. on a Saturday? "Don't worry, it's not actual work. Put the earpiece on." 

In the fear she will repeat in a scarier (and inhumane) tone, Byulyi did as told. "Lower the volume down then, I don't want my ears to be–"

"WAIT WHAT?" The sound was of course as bass boosted as it got, and Byulyi threw the device away in an instinctive moment.

"What did I just say?!" Yelling her shock out didn't help her ears in the slightest. She thought the all knowing hacker wouldn't struggle with this, but she had trusted her too much.

"Ok, this was my mistake," Now the audio was appropriate for Byulyi's ear, but she still had to pick it up from the other side of the room to hear her. When she placed it with extra care -this was a gesture to the camera- Wheein spoke. "Sorry, rough morning..?" 

Amusing how her excuse was so childish. Humane. "You don't sound like it," she said. The thing about magnolia that bewildered her the most was the fact that she had human-like qualities, not the other way around.

"I don't understand." 

_ Do you even hear yourself?  _ It was the same customer service tone again, like a midnight shift cashier on thin ice. Maybe that was when her brain went on autopilot. "So, not actual work?" 

Her responses were clicks, so she assumed this theory to be true.

"Nope," she replied, not minding the long pause. "You don't even know what your work will be like."

She was right, the term  _ playing the police _ never had an actual meaning, and it was the only description of the job Wheein gave. Byulyi, with the little strength she managed to gain in the few hours of being awake, jumped up to sit on her kitchen counter. "Tell me then. I'm an archer, not a puzzle solver."

"In short, I'll do what I always do, and on occasion you will do the leg work for me," she took a pause, intentional this time. "Remember the big buff guy at Hyejin's garage last week? If you don't, that's ok-"

It shouldn't have been a surprise that Wheein knew about Hyejin, yet she still felt chills run down from her back. "I remember being terrified of him, but," there was a piece of information about the two meter giant that Byulyi couldn't figure out. "He was troubled about something."

"Do you observe everyone like this?" Wheein didn't want an actual response. From watching Byulyi's eyes dart around the streets, Wheein  _ knew _ she observed everyone like this. "This little community Hyejin created in her garage, I actually like you guys, oftentimes you pick on people I do. But every once in a while, people like him stroll around, and I take care of them. Usually by blackmailing, locking assets, and anonymously sending police little tidbits of evidence," she left the last part hanging, alluding to the fact that this was what she meant by  _ playing the police.  _

"Why?"

"Because why not?" Wheein snapped, her voice jizzled through the earpiece. "Why turn a blind eye while you can do all that?"

There was nothing wrong with the logic, but nothing right either. While Byulyi could have proposed many counter arguments, she had to be content with saying "I suppose."

Getting a calm response must have made Wheein more aware of the sudden rage she caught herself in, because she coughed away the embarrassment. This was the most clear emotion she had shown through her voice, so Byulyi noted in her head to not mess with her buttons like this again, even though she didn't intend to. 

Wheein murmured something, a little too fast at first but clearer the second time. "Did you actually have your phone number up in that website of yours?"

"I- yes? One of my numbers at least." She had to have one mode of communication open for the clients, but of course it led to a secondary phone she didn't actually use that much. She didn't even know where she last put it, ever since last week she didn't have a need to pick it up again.

"I was about to think you are an absolute idiot Byulyi..." On que, her phone from the counter lit up. "...but you saved yourself"

"Wheein, that's–" she stopped to observe her  _ very _ private phone lit up again and again with the continuous messages. "Was this even hard for you? How can you get that off the internet?"

"With this many questions, Byulyi, we won't get anywhere," she said, her chair creaking. Byulyi assumed she was leaning backwards. "I sent you your first job, see you tomorrow."

"You scheduled work for tomorrow?!" 

The earpiece was dead silent. Wheein had finished the call.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sooo at this point we'll see where the random inspirations I get lead the story
> 
> have a great week 💜💜


	3. omniscient assholes

.❀。• *₊°。 ❀°。

Hyejin has people hanging around the corners of her garage, but when it's night time, even the buffest guys are ushered away by the small woman. Sexism aside, her talent and unique mechanical skills overrode men's fragile pride; it overrode the made up notion that they shouldn't confide in a woman for help. Knowing all that made them scatter without another word.

Besides, no one else had their services open for a wide variety of people, and no one had the pure resilience to keep this underground mechanic shenanigan up for so long.

She didn't even remember how she got herself into this mess. It was her engineering degree, a disappointing result in job searching, and her cousin giving away this garage because the area was "too dirty for him to have a property in" and the rest was blurry. Little did he know Hyejin would only add onto this illegal dump her cousin described as dirt.

The metal door slid open by a little and she started yelling out of instinct. "Didn't I tell you to stop screwing around here?! Get off my ass!"

Echoes of screeching metal tormented her ears more and more. She put down her equipment that stood halfway polished and turned to the door to stop whoever messed with her past closing.

The person almost crushed under the metal gate was Byulyi, trying to open the gate with a single hand while she held two beer cans in the other.

"My god…" pitying the archer -but more so wanting the beer- she gave enough opening in the gate for her to pass through. "...what are you doing here?"

Byulyi tripped on her feet trying to balance the stuff she held and getting through the narrow opening, but took a few more steps to avoid a fall. "Wanted to chat a little."

Both of them knew Hyejin wasn't going to buy it. By the time she turned back from her embarrassing non-fall, Hyejin had one eyebrow raised and her hands crossed. She didn't have to say _spit it out_ for Byulyi to do so.

"I got a job now. A long term one."

Hyejin dragged two stools for them to sit on her way back to her work table. While she did have a chair there, it was much higher than the stool Byulyi would have to sit, and she didn't like looking down on people.

The reward of her dragging both stools at the same time was the beer that was thrown in an instant. A small thanks escaped from her lips along with her breath, but really she just wanted to sit down and listen to how Byulyi got a long term job of all things in a day. Byulyi didn't do long term, it wasn't how she got hired and it wasn't how she made her job. You'd go up to her, tell her what you want an arrow to go through (whatever the odd reasoning you had, Byulyi didn't care as long as you gave her money) and she'd do it. That would be the end of her relationship with her clients.

"It's magnolia," she said, opening her can and letting beer flow out. _She ran here_ , Hyejin thought, beer wouldn't overflow unless you shook it. 

But the name magnolia should have caught her attention more, right? Byulyi paused, she never paused when the topic was her, so she must want a reaction. Why couldn't Hyejin comprehend the most active hacker on the rise just contacted and recruited her friend? She knew why, but for her brain to form its thoughts in a line, she had to open her can.

Byulyi was right with choosing beer, it made your thoughts lighter however serious they were.

"Oh, good for you." She opened her beer much more gently, this time with less overflow. "When does it start?"

Byulyi, with her beer soaked hand reaching out to Hyejin, stood appalled for a few seconds. "Uh, tomorrow.” 

With the firsts sip of beer brushing her throat, her mind numbed on instinct. It wasn’t the beer’s doing anymore, the taste was enough to ease her worries. Hyejin reminded herself she should cut down her alcohol intake sometime this month. “Are you sure? Her name is tossed around a lot nowadays, I bet people took on impersonating her too. Then again...” 

"Then again what?"

Hyejin scooted further away from Byulyi to reach for her phone. "Nothing," she said, scrolling through her messages and closing the app soon after. “Tell me about her.”

Byulyi went through just what happened after she left the garage, all the way to the details of her work tomorrow morning. How there was a small earpiece in her bag, and how she didn’t know the way it got there. Hyejin shook her head through all the craziness. It was what she had always done. Cameras planted in her apartment? Sure, why not, at least there wasn’t a gigantic folder with her dirtiest secrets waiting for her instead. 

With how stone-faced Hyejin took the news, she could see her friend’s frustration with how she finished her beer along with her story. She had to say something at this point. “This is different from what she normally does, you know. Picking out someone like this to do work for her.”

“What does she normally do? Just piss off the people she dislikes?”

No, Wheein picked people whose actions were so disgusting she’d rather not tell another soul, actions so vile her body shook from her seat. Even so, Hyejin said “Pretty much,” because Byulyi wasn’t ready for an actual introduction to what kind of people she had to deal with. “Wheein has many contacts, everyone knows her but no one sees her. She has strings to pull to push people into doing what she wants, so it is a whole surprise to see her picking a single person to do all those.” she paused, gave a thought before saying it. “What kind of shit does she have on you?”

Come to think of it, besides getting her only source of income blocked by the hacker, Byulyi wasn’t threatened on a personal level. There weren't any dark secrets revealed, nothing she wanted to keep hidden coming to light. “I don’t know,” she admitted. 

The possibility of her past being dug up wasn’t something she was ever going to entertain, not even as a joke.

“If it makes you feel any better, she makes it clear she has blackmail material up front,” Beer dripped down to her pants as she tried to reach to the bottom of the can. “She likes a good showoff.”

Byulyi, with her first hand experience flashing before her eyes, nodded. If there was anything she knew about Wheein it was this and how forward she talked. 

Hyejin kicked the stool down upon standing up, and took a half polished wrench in her hand. "I'll do some more cleaning, and you should sleep this off anyways."

Byulyi knew this was her way of kicking her out, and the wrench was just a to-be used weapon if she ever whined about it. "Good night Hyejin," she said, and tiptoed to the gate.

As soon as the archer left her peripheral view, she picked her phone up again to find the messages she looked for mid conversation. She typed, the click sounds echoing through the garage.

Hyejin: It was Byulyi?? 

Hyejin: You could have at least told me.

The reply came in as fast as a bot would type. She shouldn't have been surprised at this speed, but it boggled her mind nonetheless.

Wheein: I didn't know you two were this close my bad

Wheein: but also

Wheein: did you tell her we text and all?

Hyejin knew not responding would mean a no, but there wasn't anything coming up in her brain. In all honesty, having a single person to be her partner was all Wheein talked about for months, but with Byulyi being that person, she couldn't just say how she knew this was coming for a long time. A lot of the times Hyejin pitied this position, being Wheein's partner, and it downright sucked to see her friend being the subject.

Wheein: thought so

Wheein: we have work tomorrow, so maybe you were right by not telling her anything right now

Wheein: she'll learn soon enough what this all means

Hyejin: if you say so

She turned back to the wrench that needed no actual polishing, and continued. Sometimes to be a friend meant you had to be an all knowing, omniscient asshole, and Hyejin had to deal with it.

.❀。• *₊°。 ❀°。

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If your friend is about to enter a criminal hellhole, please tell them instead of making your other friend drag them through it,,,
> 
> here's to hoping I don't get random fevers in between chapters next time


End file.
